And from the UDP to the CDC, last night we told you they had issued a travel warning ranking Belize at level 4 - which is basically telling tourists not to visit. This is because of the surging COVID numbers; today saw over 1,400 new confirmed cases.
It's dire news for a tourism industry that's still bouncing back from a mostly flatline 2020.
And while arrivals were high in the past few months, that may start to slow down. Today, we asked the president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association about this concern, and he said the problem isn't so much the level 4 status, but the fact that so many people are being affected by the virus. He also commented on the ranking system which favors the US, saying that tourists will still be safer here than they are there.
Stewart Krohn, President, BTIA
"The new designation b y the CDC for Belize is nothing that was at all unexpected. The requirements for those rankings are very clear cut and has to do with the average number of cases that any country has within the last 28 days. So this is no surprise at all. The problem is not that we're on the number 4 level of the CDC, the problem is that we have too much COVID 19 in Belize. That's the problem and we're passed the point, my feeling is we're passed the point where we need to try and beg and cajole people to get vaccinated. Both myself personally and BTIA and I would venture to say that the vast majority of the tourist industry itself is in favor of mandates. You can quibble about how you're going to institute various mandates but we're in a serious position and any responsible government and any responsible ministry of health has to get hold of this situation."
"If you look at the statistics, for example, the United States have had over 40 million COVID cases, they have had over 653,000 deaths. Yesterday, they had 166,000 new cases and 1,895 deaths. If you compare those to Belize even on a per capita basis, if the CDC was ranking its own country the same way it's ranking other countries, the USA and virtually any state in the US would be in a do not visit category 4. so it's a little bit ironic, it's a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black. They are far worse off and have handled COVID 19 far worse than Belize or almost any other country on the planet."
But regardless of the unfair ranking, it seems that the tourists are still mindful of it. Krohn told us today that there have been cancellations, and if the country's COVID numbers don't start going down, it could be a huge blow for the industry.
Stewart Krohn, President, BTIA
"If you ask the hotels and tour operators, we're already receiving cancellations because Belize has gotten a reputation as just too much Covid in the country, it's too dangerous, and this is what the CDC warning is about so I think what we're looking at now, you cannot cut your COVID cases, your hospitalization, and your deaths overnight. This is a long term process. September and October and early November are traditionally the slowest part of our season. That's pretty much cast in stone at this point, we're not going to get a lot of new reservations for September, October and early November and any new reservations we get will certainly be balanced out by cancellations so we're not looking at the next two months. What we're trying to do is to salvage our winter season. Fortunately, people are not yet starting to cancel their thanksgiving Christmas and winter holidays because of the present COVID situation but if we do not get this problem under control primarily through increased vaccination numbers. If we do not get this under control we're going to see, even a month ago, was looking like a fabulous winter season, that winter season is going to evaporate quickly. We have got to get this thing under control. So that's why we say don't hesitate, vaccinate. This is the most patriotic thing you can do for your country, for the country's economy, for the people who are going to lose their jobs if there's no tourism for the winter season. It's that simple."
